Manners
By anonymous
I find out too late that my new stepsister is a martial arts expert!


***

A friend told me it would be good for me to write down the following incident
to help me deal with my anger issues. This is something that happened to me a
few years ago when I was 17 and still living at home with my father after he
and my mother were separated. My father remarried a woman who had a 16 year
old daughter named Trisha.

I wasn't happy that my parents were divorced and I wasn't happy that I now had
some woman I had just barely met as my new stepmother, hell I wasn't a very
happy kid anyway. I was obstinate, stubborn and sometimes just downright rude
to my new stepmother and stepsister and didn't make too much of an effort to
get along.

It was summer vacation and my father and stepmother went of vacation for a
couple of weeks. I had to make a conscious effort to snub Trisha, she was
beautiful and engaging and just a sweet person to be around. I didn't give her
a chance to get close because I wanted everybody around me to know that I was
angry and depressed.

I came downstairs one morning and found Trisha and a friend of hers talking
and laughing quietly at the table. I said my usual nothing as I went to the
refrigerator and chewed on some leftover something or other I didn't identify.
Tricia said something that I ignored and I was starting to leave when she
yelled me name.

"Rob!," she yelled.

"What!," I shot back aggravated.

"You're such a miserable person, I've been saying 'good morning' to you for
five minutes and you've totally ignored me.

"So what!?, I've got nothing to say to you!," I snapped.

"Well even so, would it kill you to have some fucking manners and at least
acknowledge when people are talking to you?," she said with an edge.

"Fuck off," I said curtly and started back to my room.

"Oh yeah?," she asked getting to her feet. "Fuck me, huh?," her voice
quivered. "That's what I mean ... somebody should teach you some manners and
I'm thinking it might as well be me," she said cryptically. I was just over 6
foot tall and about 175 lbs., Tricia wasn't even five foot six and probably
weighed 120 pounds soaking wet.

"Are you challenging me to a fight?," I asked with a surprised tone. Quicker
than I would have thought possible, she closed the distance between us and
slapped me with an open hand in the face. I was enraged! I quickly told her
that she would pay for that and I lunged at her. She sidestepped my attack and
slammed her foot into the side of my head! I was knocked dizzy as I stumbled
into the wall. Her friend, who had been quiet up to that point, starting
cheering on Trish.

"That's it Trish, kick the shit out of this guy!," she screamed. She continued
whooping and hollering as Trish punched and kicked me at will.

I was really mad now and wanted to get hands around her throat. I went to grab
her as Trish unleashed four or five powerful kicks to my head! It was like
white hot pain exploding in my field of vision. I felt myself fall against the
wall and lay there in a crumpled heap. The dizziness in my head started to
subside and I vaguely made out the image of Trish's friend crouched down over
me. She was whispering something to me.

"Did I forget to mention that Trisha is a Black Belt!," her friend giggled.

"You want more Rob, should we continue with your lesson in manners!," Trisha
asked grinning.

I shoved her friend aside as I scrambled to my feet and renewed my quest to
strangle Trisha. Every swipe I took was blocked or dodged as Trish just kept
on pounding me with her feet and her hands. I lost track of how many times
Trisha hit me, but at one point I kind of remember her slamming her hand into
the side of my head, then all was quiet.

Next thing I remember is feeling nauseous as I started to come around. I felt
something cold on the side of my head and my vision finally cleared enough to
see Trisha dabbing at my face with a moist cloth. I started to try and get up
but Trish put her hand on my chest and said, "Relax, just lie still." Her
friend was nowhere to be seen.

She grabbed my hand and brought it up to the ice-pack on the side of my head,
"Hold this here." My whole face was aching and felt swollen. She took a cloth
off my nose that was soaked in blood and replaced it with another one. "Hold
this here with pressure," she said. I groaned in pain when I pressed the cloth
to my face, my nose felt like it had been ripped off and I couldn't breathe
through it. "Your nose might be broken, so keep pressure on it until it stops
bleeding," she said still cleaning me up.

"Do you feel like you can sit up?," she asked. I slowly sat up with her help
and groaned a little as I coughed and spit some blood. My mouth was swollen
and it felt like a couple of my teeth were loose. I leaned over on my arm and
collapsed in pain, it had been wrenched around hard and my elbow felt like it
had broken glass in the joint. I cradled my arm as I tried to get to my feet.
I slowly rose with Trisha's help. My legs still felt wobbly as I made my way
over to the couch. "Here, take these," Trisha said giving me some pain
reliever and a glass of water. I took a painful sip of water and swallowed the
pills. I laid back and passed out again. I woke a couple hours later when
Trish got back from wherever she went.

"How are you doing," she asked inspecting my face. "Do you want to go to the
hospital for your nose?," she asked. I took the compress off my face and
although it was swollen and bruised, it had stopped bleeding. My shirt was
still covered in blood and it was caked around my ears and mouth. I slowly
shook my head to her question.

"Go up and take a shower, you'll feel better," she said. She noticed I was
having trouble walking a straight line, so she helped me up the stairs and
into the bathroom. She started pulling my bloody clothes off me and turned on
the shower. I couldn't get my pants down because my arm felt like it had been
broken, so Trisha just stripped me and helped me into the shower. "Just hang
here and let the water run over you, you'll fell better in a minute," she said
and left. I held onto the shower arm and let the warm water run down the back
of my head.

I got out of the shower after a while and dried off. I still ached all over,
especially my face and my nose which had started bleeding again but all in
all, I did feel better. I went over to the mirror and found that Trisha really
did a number on me. My nose was hideously swollen and both my eyes were
starting to blacken plus my lip was busted open and hurt like hell. I was just
staring back at this bloody mess that Trish had turned my face into and I
started thinking how I was ever going to live it down. I had been beaten to a
bloody pulp by my little step sister and there was nothing I could do to stop
it. I felt like such a loser I just started quietly weeping with my head in my
hands.

I didn't hear Trisha enter but suddenly she was there hugging me as I wept
uncontrollably into my hands. All my anger and frustration vented out while I
blubbered out an apology to Trisha. She just hugged me and rocked me back and
forth until I quit weeping and got a handle on the situation. Her demeanor
changed dramatically and she was now being as kind and sweet as she was
violent a couple hours earlier.

"I'm sorry Rob, that was an ugly situation and I let it get out of control"
she stopped abruptly. "Can we be friends now and put this whole thing behind
us?," she asked with a grin.

"Yeah Trisha," I sniffed. "Yeah, we can."

I made a speedy recovery and needless to say, I was never rude to Trisha or
her mother again.

-fin-